Best Man
by Midorima Kazunari
Summary: Midorima and Takao travel back to Japan for Aomine and Momoi's wedding. (This is a companion piece of Partners' Universe.)


A/N: My thanks to Sapphyre Lily. for reading this over before I posted.

* * *

"Midorin!" the high-pitched, energetic voice blares out of my cellphone just after six am the day after my first game as a starting player for the Knicks. "Did you win? How many shots did you make? Did Takao-kun take lots of pictures? Videos?"

I hang up without answering and stuff the phone under the pillow.

"Who was that?" Kazu asks from where he is curled under my chin in the too small hotel bed we share.

"No one important; go back to sleep."

The buzzing comes again a few seconds later.

"Are you sure it's not important?" he asks and digs the phone out, answering it. "It's six in the morning," he says with a yawn. "And we just got to bed about two hours ago. Can this wait, Momoi-san?"

"Six?" Aomine's lazy voice comes over the speakerphone. "Shit, Satsuki, didn't you check the time there before you called?"

"Six? I thought it was closer to two in the morning," she says in the background.

"Mm," he says. "Call us back when you're awake."

"What do you want Aomine, Momoi?" I say. "We are both wide awake now."

"We've set the day for our wedding and we really want you to be there!" Satsuki says. "It'll just be family and our best friends."

"When?" I ask.

"The last Saturday in July. The NBA finals — which I'm sure your team will be participating in — will be over by that time. You've no excuse," Momoi answers.

"Of course he'll be there," Kazu tells them.

"And you too, Takao-kun. We want you there as well."

"Kazunari is fine, but I hardly know you —"

"Don't be stupid," Aomine chuckles, "Midorima is much easier to stomach when you're around, plus, if you don't come we'll be short one player."

"Player? What are you talking about?" Kazu asks.

"We'll be exchanging vows at that old hotel we all used to go to for summer practice," Momoi explained. "We'll get married on the beach and then, instead of a reception, we'll have a game. Outside of the family, everyone on our teams was handpicked for the guest list. I want Kazunari-kun as my Point Guard."

"I don't even play anymore," he groans.

"You're telling me you don't practice with Midorin?" she teases.

"Well, of course I do…"

"Then it's settled. Can I mark your RSVPs as coming?" she demands.

"Oy, Satsuki, stop bullying them," Aomine slurs.

"Say you'll come! Please! Dai-chan is just annoyed I won't let him have all the Kiseki no Sedai on his team. I got the two of you fair and square," she brags.

Kazu fumbles around and finds his phone. He thumbs through his calendar until July. Through the first week, the entire schedule is booked full with colorful notations, but after that there is very little except a summer class that he has been contemplating taking.

"Yes, we'll be there. Count on us, Momoi," he answers for us.

* * *

A few weeks later, a box arrives with postal marks and a customs declaration that says it is from Aomine. I open it immediately and out falls two jerseys. They are light pink with dark blue letters across them. The kanji on the front says: Team Satsuki.

Kazu picks up the one that tumbles to the floor. He shakes it out and turns it over. Across the upper back, it says Midorima above the number ten. "It looks like they got your size wrong. This is way too small for you."

The other jersey says Midorin above the number six. "That's yours, Baka. Your name has been Midorima for eighteen months. Everyone other than you is used to it by now."

"Oh," he says, blushing. "Oops."

* * *

Everything about the day of the wedding annoys me. Because of the hotel, Kazu and I have to share a room with six other people, I can't find (or didn't pack) my prescription sunglasses, and when Aomine boasts that he is the first of the Kiseki no Sedai to get married, I've had it. I turn to head back to the room and pack to leave when Kagami of all people pipes up.

"Ahomine, did you forget Midorima and Takao have been married for almost two years now?"

Aomine looks at him, then at me, then at Kazu. "What? That old married couple? They were born married, they don't count."

Kazu is laughing so hard he's bent over, wiping tears from his eyes. "If you say so, Aomine, if you say so."

"It's my day; don't ruin it by being married first," he mutters as he walks back to the open bar and helps himself to a beer.

"If you think you can beat Team Satsuki all liquored up, be my guest," I say tartly. "I didn't come all this way to play against someone who can't stand up."

"You're on Team Satsuki, too?" Bakagami asks.

I sigh, rubbing the two matching spots on my forehead where the pressure is getting to be too much. I just add that to the list of things I hate about today.

"Which one of you is Kazunari?" the bride's maid of honor and former classmate from Teiko, Miki Arai, asks. She's been hitting on every male that walks by all day and this bodes badly for my rising temper.

"That would be me," Kazu responds, obliviously.

"Oh, aren't you a cute one. After the ceremony, maybe we can…"

"I'm married," he says, holding up his ring hand and showing off the circle of metal _I_ put there.

"That doesn't mean anything, honey," she smirks.

"To a man," he says, his smile is even larger than hers.

"Always the gay ones… Anyway, Satsuki wants you. She needs help."

"Why him?" Aomine and I ask at the same moment.

"Something about only a bride would know… Now that makes sense."

"Alright, lead the way," he says, rolling his eyes. "She did see the pictures, right? We got married in a courthouse by a clerk. It wasn't anything elaborate."

"Fine, then I get Midorima," Aomine says, grabbing me by my wrist – oddly gentle and careful not to touch my bandaged fingers – and drags me back to his 'ready room.'

Over the years, I can clearly say that my worst relationship with a member of the Kiseki no Sedai has always been with Aomine, who represents every bully who has ever pushed his way through my life. So, when I end up in a room alone with him and an old woman with his dark skin and hair coloring, I immediately try to flee.

She says something to me as I attempt to slip out the door, and when I look back, his glare stops me in my tracks.

"Oba-chan," he says, "Midorima won't understand that _Uchinaaguchi_ language, hell, _I_ don't understand you half the time. Speak Japanese."

"I said: where ya going, bean sprout?"

"Apparently, nowhere," I say, sitting down and crossing my arms. "I can't imagine why Aomine wants me in here during this special moment before the ceremony."

"Don't mind him," he says to his grandmother. "He's the only one of my friends already married, but he's uptight. He'll make a good best man."

"Best man, ha," she barks. "There's only one best man here and that's the one Satsuki is choosing to spend the rest of her life with." She knocks imaginary fluff off the lapels of his dark blue Hawaiian shirt that matches mine. "I'm just glad you put those awful teenage years behind you and got your head out of your ass before you were too late to see what a good thing she had always been for you."

I don't know why, but I laugh, and as they both turn to look at me, I throw my hand over my mouth and look away.

"See, even the uptight bean sprout knows you were an ass."

"Yes, Oba-chan, as you love to tell me… everyone knew it but me. I was an ass; I'm still an ass, but, at least, Satsuki doesn't mind too much," he says, as the old woman caresses his face. "Do you have the rings?" he asks.

"I told you the first three times you asked that I had them. When are you going to believe me?"

"When they're on our hands. I just… don't want to screw this up. Basketball is so much simpler."

"What is it that the American boy calls you? Ahomine? Did you forget our family motto?"

"No, Oba-chan," he blushes.

"Tell me then," she says, stepping back and putting her hands on her hips.

"The only one who can beat me, is me," he says, embarrassed.

"Good for you, you can memorize words," she sasses him, "but tell me what it means."

"That the only one that can screw this up, is me and my ego, so I've got to take responsibility."

"Today that means you're not important here, Daiki. Only Satsuki is important, and as long as you don't get in your own way and screw it up, all you have to do is make her happy."

"Thanks, Oba-chan." He turns to me. "So, as the only married member of the Kiseki no Sedai, do you have any advice, Midorima?" For a moment, he looks so sincere that I can see actual fear in his blue eyes.

"More than believing in yourself, believe in Momoi."

"Is that how you did it? By believing in Takao?"

"Did what?"

"Make your new life together after all the shit we did."

"Life is just like a game of basketball, Aomine, but you don't get to call timeouts. There's no shame in falling occasionally as a husband — we have all fallen as human beings and Satsuki and Kazu were there to help us stand up again — the shame comes from not apologizing as you get back on your feet."

* * *

We stand in a circle around Aomine and Momoi as they make their vows to go along with all the paperwork they've already filed. For some reason, I stand next to Aomine, despite my misgivings, and Kazu stands with me. Momoi has her two childhood girlfriends, Arai and Kikuchi, beside her. Her mother and father and his grandmother stand next to the officiant. As they exchange promises for their life ahead, Kazu and I mouth the same words we said on that day in New York: "This means forever."

Around the circle, counterclockwise from my position are Kazu, Kuroko, Kagami, Murasakibara, Akashi, Kise, Arai, Kikuchi, Momoi, and Aomine. Milling around behind them are Himuro — Murasakibara's hetero-life partner, or maybe babysitter — and Furihata, Seijūrō's "manager."

It takes only moments, and what they've felt for years has been validated in front of us. We open our poppers, sending streamers of biodegradable material floating in the air around them. Murasakibara hurries — yes, I said hurries — away and when he returns, he is holding out the most stunning wedding cake I've ever seen. It's only three small tiers, but the white cake is decorated with a cascade of delicate sugar butterflies in a brilliant basketball orange.

"For Mine-chan and Sa-chin," he says, presenting this masterpiece to the newlywed couple.

"He didn't make anything like that for us," Kazu whispers to me. "Not fair."

"No, decidedly not," I agree.

* * *

I'm tired and sweaty when the game is over and Kazu and Furihata prove again how dependable they are by taking down the hoops and cleaning the court. I wipe my face on a towel from the hotel and drink a Pocari Sweat. I've missed the citrusy drink, which is so much more natural than the western Gatorade. Aomine swaggers over and sinks onto the bench next to me.

"Good game," he groans and swivels until his back is to me. He stretches, yawning, and lies out on his back – his head close to my thigh – and bends his knees.

He looks up and back at me, "I said: good game."

"Yes, you did," I answer, not sure what else he wants from me. "Was there a question in your statement?"

"Midorima… I'm trying to awkwardly start a conversation. Don't shoot me down on my wedding day," he says. "I'm not good at this shit."

"At what shit? If you want a good conversationalist, you should pick anyone other than me."

He growls in the back of his throat and sits up, swinging his legs to the front. He folds forward and rests his hands on his knees. "Alright, then just listen; I know you're good at that. Thank you."

"For what? Defeating you on your wedding day?"

"For still being my friend. I was a jerk… no, worse than that, I was awful to you most of our middle school years. If it hadn't been for Tetsu, I would still be that bully. Every time I see you, I'm embarrassed about the way I treated you. I don't even know why I did it, maybe I thought you or the other Kiseki no Sedai members would be the one to beat me and put the excitement back in my game… but that was unfair and I was just petulant."

"True," I agree.

"After Tetsu defeated me –"

"Tōō."

"That was the game; Serin defeated Tōō, but Tetsu defeated me. After that game, everything changed. Tetsu asked me to teach him to shoot and that entire time I wondered why me. Why not you?"

"Because my form isn't something that would have helped him, he understood that. And I wouldn't have taught him, not with a potential game with us upcoming."

"Yes! And no, you taught Kagami about his aerial battles before you played against him. You're a good person, Midorima, a good friend, especially to those you respect. And I know you don't respect me. I haven't changed your mind yet – and I can't, not in a day – but I'm hoping you'll let me try over time."

I stand from the bench and look down at him. He makes steady eye contact with me, but when I say nothing for too long he looks away and at his feet. I know I should say something comforting, but the words aren't in my vocabulary. He doesn't attempt to stand and there is no bravado in his demeanor, no defiance like there was all the time during our Teiko days. All those years ago… in middle school, they mean nothing now that I know for certain he's not the same man.

"The scouts," I say, almost too quietly. "The NBA scouts," I repeat with more volume. "Have any come out to see you play yet?"

"The Miami Heat," he answers without thinking. "I talked to them last week. They want me to come try out for the team, see how I'd fit in."

"Excellent. We would be in the same division," I say, nodding. "When you come, come a few weeks early and acclimatize so that you will be at your best. You and Momoi will stay with Kazu and me, and you will show me the man you are now," I say, pushing my glasses up my nose.

"Hey, Shin-chan," Kazu calls to me, waving. "Bring Aomine, the photographer is ready for the group shots!"

"Come," I tell him, offering my hand. "Momoi is waiting."


End file.
